Amiga 500 Vampire is alive

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Akira

Well that was super techy but interesting.

It makes me sad to see all the trouble they had to go through with the fucking copyright shit. It just shows you that most companies that still expect to profit from the Amiga are there just to hinder and not to nurture the Amiga scene, whatever is left of it.

for sure, they deserve better than this crap going on. but i'm confident, they will make it - together.
cool story about preventing the hdmi license fee - which is the video decoder, other have to pay for, majsta just uses 8 resistors and it does work - - no clue at all, but that is impressive stuff.
also the ARM section - sounds really great.
i hope majsta once will reveal the thug(s) behind the blackmail story - sooner or later we will know.

[Allen1]

Originally Posted by dirkies

Why is it called A500 V2 of there was never an A500 V1?

If you look at the video Emufan posted you will see that the first version( at 1:50 minutes and 15:54 into the video) which is just called Vampire 500 and has the IDE connector at the side of the processor whereas the Vampire 2 in the running 500 has the IDE port in where the processor would have been. There will be a lot of other differences but it shows you that there was a previous version prior to V2.

[dirkies]

Originally Posted by Akira

You can buy one right now and support further development, if you care so much, you know:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-500-ac...item3d26209f6e

That bidding story is going completely loco... $510 already

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by dirkies

That bidding story is going completely loco... $510 already

Yeah you could argue that, but there's a difference this time: MONEY GOES TO MAJSTA. Which is FAIR ENOUGH for all the work he has done for FREE for all of us.

Buying this board at whatever price it ends is in turn SUPPORTING further development of V600, V500 and V1200.

This is why majsta has put it up on eBay and I think it's fair that this is happening, in contrast to people who acquired a board for 160USD and then sold it for 500-800 and gave none of that back to kipper or majsta.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by emufan

Vampire 500 v2 Amiga FPGA Accelerator - World premiere!
[ Show youtube player ]
only first 15 minutes with subtitles - i hope they finish the translation.

they added the missing part of the subtitle now.

#1) Kudos to the silent donors

[copse]

Originally Posted by Akira

Yeah you could argue that, but there's a difference this time: MONEY GOES TO MAJSTA. Which is FAIR ENOUGH for all the work he has done for FREE for all of us.

Buying this board at whatever price it ends is in turn SUPPORTING further development of V600, V500 and V1200.

This is why majsta has put it up on eBay and I think it's fair that this is happening, in contrast to people who acquired a board for 160USD and then sold it for 500-800 and gave none of that back to kipper or majsta.

It might be argued that the best way to sell them is through ebay, and will result in the most funding for the project.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by copse

It might be argued that the best way to sell them is through ebay, and will result in the most funding for the project.

I agree. At this early stage, it is a form of crowdfunding. Those who want it right now and are desperate can fund the project by paying whatever they want for it, while factory production can start at a different price once the product comes out of beta.

[Mr.Flibble]

If funding is required, perhaps a flexible funding indiegogo campaign might be useful?

[Retrofan]

In fact making this kind of decissions about how to sell it right now has to be by far more complicated than how to implement FPU or things like that, and of course I don't believe they were expecting to be taking this kind of decissions.

This is all because the project is a complete success, so then come the hardest complications.

[Ratteler]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

In fact making this kind of decissions about how to sell it right now has to be by far more complicated than how to implement FPU or things like that, and of course I don't believe they were expecting to be taking this kind of decissions.

This is all because the project is a complete success, so then come the hardest complications.

I've missed the whole controversy, and the reasons to sell the prototype on ebay. can some one link me to the explanation in English? I didn't see anything explaining it on Majsta's site.

[emufan]

About recent events

Same time people started to put their Vampire 600V2 cards on eBay selling it for anywhere between 300-800Eur.

Some people are adding themselves to our waiting list because pure profit they can make by selling the card five times more than they paid for.

Without this decision we are dead in the water and we will hardly find money to finance Vampire 1200.

Originally Posted by kipper2k

Hi All,

i want to let everyone know in more detail why pricing has gone up, There was no possible way that i could get it done, I have spent hours locked up in my room trying to get these completed, as well, i have fallen way behind in other orders as people can testify and this is having an impact wit my sanity and patience. The amount of work and co-ordination required to get this all done is probably harder than what most people think. Add to this the constant flaming about people complaining that this should be handed over to a board house to get this done, and now we have people are complaining about the increased price.

Whenever you import parts bit by bit you can sometimes get them in under the radar, whenever you import expensive items the customs people rub their hands with glee and will gladly accept visa and your first born. Some people are cancelling their orders now and TBH i can understand. When we started this project and decided on the price we wanted to make this available to the masses and expected a small demand for the A600. I will never believe people who say they dont like the A600 as it appears there are at least 1000 active users of the A600. we were naive to think we could get this done at a lower price and people were excited to see this great product at a basement price, (Which it was). Once we made the decision to get the boards done professionally (at the request of a lot of people) we have now offended people at the other end of the spectrum. I have been receiving hate mail from people who are cancelling their orders and being accused of gouging, and multiple other reasons that we have used to increase the price.

I always said when it is no longer fun what i am doing then it is time to stop, So i will stop, Once the Vampire/Phoenix project is complete then it will be time to me to sell off existing bits and pieces and disappear into the woodwork. I am getting too old for this stress,

Thanks to all who supported me and to the rest, goodbye.


to the above poster, show me the $16 fpga we use from digikey ?

[Retrofan]

That is the best resume of what has happened, emufan

To me is a battle that they weren't expecting. They wanted to make it cheap as they love to make something the greatest the possible, but then they found they had to be making 60 boards a day, they were glad posting about how to solder them faster and so, when they must have a life and a family.

To resume, then is when you have to think as a company and not anymore in your customers as your mates. And that isn't because they aren't your friends, that's only because they don't know every user and then they don't know if they just want to get money of their effort and hours of work.

[Ratteler]

Originally Posted by emufan

About recent events

Yeah. I figured some shit like this was going to happen.
Nothing destroys a small dream like success.

My heart foes out to Kipper. Sadly the real Vampires are the ones going after the board for a quick buck.

I hope he takes a break, and we all figure out how get OUR Vampires at decent price without killing a treasures to our community like Kipper2K and Majsta.

Maybe he should start requiring the serial number of the Amiga the Vampire is going in. Take picture of the serial sticker and the motherboard before being allowed to order.

People are going to have to know how to open their case to put them in anyway. Might slow down the opportunists and give the real enthusiasts a chance to actually get a board.

[Retrofan]

I've been thinking about how to avoid to have buyers selling it on Ebay or wherever too. But it's hard.

Just my humble and single opinion, to tell it for once. If I was them I would try to make a contract with some company (Amigakit, Vesalia or Individual Computers) to keep a reasonable price for the assembled boards and then they could have the time they need to implement all of the new releases the users are awaiting for the new Vampires.

Of course I understand that this kind of decission would upgrade the price about near a hundred of pounds/€.

A complementary question. Today there is a thread about a new release of Phase5 boards. What price do you expect for a B1260? Would it give you more than a Vampire? I understand that this is Real Vs Emulation, but anyway...

[mihcael]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

I've been thinking about how to avoid to have buyers selling it on Ebay or wherever too. But it's hard. ...

I think they should just ebay 1 out of every 10 they make until the demand subsides.

[Sinphaltimus]

Originally Posted by Akira;1112850


You can buy one right now and support further development, if you care so much, you know:
[url

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Amiga-500-accelerator-Vampire-500-V2-/262632677230?hash=item3d26209f6e[/url]

Not at that price. I simply can't afford it. If I could, I'd be top bidder.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Sinphaltimus

Not at that price. I simply can't afford it. If I could, I'd be top bidder.

I guess you don't want it as badly as you implied then

[Romanujan]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

Today there is a thread about a new release of Phase5 boards.

Where? What exactly are they going to rerelease?

[Sinphaltimus]

Originally Posted by Akira

I guess you don't want it as badly as you implied then

Not enough to rob a bank no,. But I never hinted I wanted it THAT badly. Troll much?

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by Romanujan

Where? What exactly are they going to rerelease?

This thread: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=84218

Rest of questions, all unknown.

Originally Posted by mihcael

I think they should just ebay 1 out of every 10 they make until the demand subsides.

Great idea.